Turkish troops imprisoned after the failed military coup are being raped, starved and left without water for days, it is claimed.Amnesty International has called for immediate access to prisoners after the coup a week ago.

Amnesty says it has ‘credible evidence’ Turkish police are holding detainees in stress positions for up to 48 hours, denying them food, water and medical treatment and in the worst cases some have been subjected to severe beatings and torture, including rape.

John Dalhuisen, Amnesty International’s Europe director, said:

“Reports of abuse including beatings and rape in detention are extremely alarming, especially given the scale of detentions that we have seen in the past week.“The grim details that we have documented are just a snapshot of the abuses that might be happening in places of detention.”

“Despite chilling images and videos of torture that have been widely broadcast across the country, the government has remained conspicuously silent on the abuse. “It is absolutely imperative that the Turkish authorities halt these abhorrent practices and allow international monitors to visit all these detainees in the places they are being held.”

Amnesty spoke to lawyers, doctors and a person on duty in a detention facility about the conditions in which detainees were being held.They heard alarming accounts of torture and other ill-treatment of detainees, particularly at the Ankara Police Headquarters sports hall, Ankara Başkent sports hall and the riding club stables there.Two lawyers in Ankara working on behalf of detainees told Amnesty International that detainees said they witnessed senior military officers in detention being raped with a truncheon or finger by police officers.A person on duty at the Ankara Police Headquarters sports hall saw a detainee with severe wounds consistent with having been beaten, including a large swelling on his head.The detainee could not stand up or focus his eyes and he eventually lost consciousness.